Earl Sweatshirt: Some Rap Songs (UK import) [TAN CRESSIDA/COLUMBIA]

Why you'll love it

This is the UK import pressing on Tan Cressida and Columbia. Some Rap Songs scored 86 on Metacritic, and XXL called it one of the most personal, gripping rap records of the year.

This edition

• UK import

About the album

Earl Sweatshirt called his third album Some Rap Songs and put a shaky, blurry selfie on the cover. Critics noticed straight away that the music sounds the way that photo looks, smudged at the edges and sharp in the middle. Earl produced much of it himself, chopping old soul and jazz records into short, warped loops, with help from Darryl Anthony, Adé Hakim, Denmark, Black Noise, Sage Elsesser and Shamel of Standing on the Corner.

Fifteen tracks fly by in about 25 minutes. "Nowhere2go" was the lead single, its beat shifting a little on every pass, while "The Mint" brings in Navy Blue and "December 24" reaches back to the harder style of his early records. Family runs all through it: there are vocal samples of his mother, Cheryl Harris, and of his father, the South African poet Keorapetse Kgositsile, who is credited posthumously, and the closing "Riot!" rides an instrumental sample of Hugh Masekela.

Pitchfork heard dust popping off vinyl and cassette hiss throughout, so the format suits it nicely. HipHopDX set it beside Mac Miller's Swimming as a record about working through grief and healing. Twenty-five minutes, start to finish; we've had longer queues at the till.

Also at Kops: more Earl Sweatshirt on vinyl · browse Hip Hop / R&B

Tracklist

Listen

On Tan Cressida / Columbia (cat# 19075898051), a reissue of the 2018 album.